Page 204 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

whole drive in the pleasantest daydreams. With a resolute
feeling of hope in a new, better life, he reached home
before nine o’clock at night.
The snow of the little quadrangle before the house was

lit up by a light in the bedroom windows of his old nurse,
Agafea Mihalovna, who performed the duties of
housekeeper in his house. She was not yet asleep.
Kouzma, waked up by her, came sidling sleepily out onto
the steps. A setter bitch, Laska, ran out too, almost
upsetting Kouzma, and whining, turned round about
Levin’s knees, jumping up and longing, but not daring, to
put her forepaws on his chest.
‘You’re soon back again, sir,’ said Agafea Mihalovna.
‘I got tired of it, Agafea Mihalovna. With friends, one
is well; but at home, one is better,’ he answered, and went
into his study.
The study was slowly lit up as the candle was brought
in. The familiar details came out: the stag’s horns, the
bookshelves, the looking-glass, the stove with its
ventilator, which had long wanted mending, his father’s
sofa, a large table, on the table an open book, a broken ash
tray, a manuscript book with his handwriting. As he saw
all this, there came over him for an instant a doubt of the
possibility of arranging the new life, of which he had been

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